Betty Lou Beets, set for lethal injection Thursday, would be only the second woman executed in Texas since the Civil War and the fourth in the nation since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in the mid 1970s. She is one of nine women on death row in Texas and one of 50 nationwide.

"I'm asking you to let me live," she said, her voice cracking in a plea to Gov. George W. Bush broadcast Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I'm asking for mercy. And I'm asking for that compassion and I'm praying you will allow it for me."

Bush, in South Carolina where he is campaigning for the Republican nomination for president, said he would make no decision in her case until he receives a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is considering her request for clemency.

"I have no unilateral right to stop an execution," he said. "Secondly, all facts of a case need to be considered. And the thing I consider is whether or not a jury has heard all the facts and whether or not the person is guilty of the crime committed and whether or not the person has had full access to the courts."

Bush, a death penalty supporter, has presided over 119 executions since taking office in January 1995.

Under Texas law, he can only grant a one-time, 30-day stay of execution unless a majority of the 18-member parole board votes to recommend a sentence be commuted.

On Thursday, Texas Catholic bishops asked Bush to suspend the death penalty and review capital punishment in the state, which leads the nation in executions.

A spokeswoman for the governor said he has no plans to do so. Bush defended the Texas death penalty system Tuesday when asked about it during a GOP presidential debate. The issue has received renewed national attention since Illinois Gov. George Ryan a Bush supporter halted executions this month because of the exoneration of 13 death row inmates in his state over two decades.

Beets was convicted in 1985 of killing her fifth husband, Jimmy Don Beets, whose body was found buried under a flower garden outside her trailer two years after she reported him missing on a fishing trip.

"She was watering flowers over my daddy every day for 23 months," James Beets, the victim's son, said this week. "It's not right."